soup of the eeeevening…

Last week one of my friends had a birthday, and I invited her to have one of her celebrations here for dinner. When I asked her what she wanted to eat (the birthday girl gets to choose, of course!), she said, “well, everyone likes chicken…”. I took her at her word, and got one from my pals. I roasted the bird whole rather than cutting it up first and presented it on a platter. Quite pretty. My friend is a doctor, so she got to carve. Too bad she had to work for her dinner!

We also enjoyed a sweet potato gratin and broccoli rabe. There wasn’t much left of the sweet potatoes, but I overestimated on the broccoli rabe. Oh well, leftovers are our friends!

After eating every bit of meat off the bird I made stock as usual.

See the rosemary and thyme?Wish you could smell it!

The only thing I did differently this time was to add some whole allspice and two pieces of star anise to the mix. Oh my. Fragrant doesn’t begin to describe it! It didn’t scream of licorice, it just hinted delicately of something slightly exotic.

Anyway, there isn’t any more leftover broccoli! It went into yesterday’s lunch soup with a few shelled roasted chestnuts. I simmered it for a bit then rough chopped it with my stick blender. Heaven!

That’s the joy of stock. Vary it as you like and add what my mother calls “gehochte tsouris” which translates as “mixed up trouble” but mostly means “clean out the fridge”! And then make soup…